Worker’s Fatal Fall Results in $400,000 Fine for Mississauga Company with Record of Convictions

September 20, 2019 5:10 P.M.

Ministry of Labour

Convicted: Lafarge Canada Inc., 6509 Airport Road, Mississauga, Ontario, L4V 1S7 (Eastern Canada head office).

Location: A decommissioned cement plant located at 683917 Road 68, Oxford 2, Zorra Township, Ontario.

Description of Offence: While giving a tour of the facility to contractors, a worker fell from a walkway that had corroded and could not support the worker’s weight. The worker later died in hospital.

Date of Offence: August 23, 2017.

Date of Conviction: January 11, 2019.
Date of Sentencing: September 20, 2019.
Penalty Imposed:

Following a guilty plea to one count, the company was fined $400,000 in Woodstock court by Justice of the Peace Michael A. Cuthbertson; Crown Counsel Jai Dhar and Evan Schiller.
The court also imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.

Background:

On August 23, 2017, a worker was leading contractors on a tour of a closed plant that was decommissioned and ceased cement production and mining operations in 2008. The purpose of the tour was about the potential demolition of one of the decommissioned kiln buildings.
The worker took the contractors to the upper level of the kiln buildings onto an exterior walkway.
A corroded section of the walkway collapsed and the worker fell nearly 30 feet to the ground below. The worker later died from the injuries.
The walkway had corroded to the point where it was structurally unsound. It had not been braced or shored up to prevent collapse, and there were no adequate barriers, locks, or other safeguards to prevent access to the kilns or walkways.
Lafarge Canada Inc. failed as an employer to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed in section 72 of Ontario Regulation 851 (the Industrial Establishments Regulation) were carried out at the workplace.
Section 72 of the regulation provides that where a structure is damaged to the extent that the collapse of any part of the structure is likely to occur and cause injury to a worker, the structure shall be braced and shored to prevent the collapse or effective safeguards shall be provided to prevent access to the area.
Lafarge Canada Inc. has been convicted and fined for contraventions of the Occupational Health and Safety Act in 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2017. Three of the four convictions were related to the deaths of workers.

Media Contacts
Janet Deline
Communications Branch
molmedialine@ontario.ca
416-326-7405